


Big Blue Horizon

by ChampagneSly



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Alternate Universe, Humor, M/M, Romance, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-21
Updated: 2018-05-24
Packaged: 2019-05-09 14:31:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14717885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChampagneSly/pseuds/ChampagneSly
Summary: On a sunny California afternoon, everyone's favorite lifeguard Kagami rescues a Kuroko who is not exactly drowning (at least not in a literal way) and finds that there might be more worth saving between them than just sand and sea.Or: Life's a beach and everyone's just a little bit thirsty.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to the kagakuro discord group for motivating me to write anything at all. I thought that the part of me that could write more than a thousand words had disappeared forever. I owe you guys. <3

 

Much though he loathed to acknowledge such a simple truth, Kagami was no stranger to admiration (in fact, he was very likely on passing acquaintance with overtly expressed _lust)_. It was hard, even for him, to ignore the weight of a hundred appreciative gazes as he thundered down Venice Beach, red shorts pulled tight against his thighs and his pecs bouncing ever so slightly as he jogged. It was the price of doing business as a lifeguard, Tatsuya had told him way back in the day, when Kagami was still a naive little thing, newly certified and ready to save lives. Kagami hadn’t known that he’d spend more of his time running away from lewd propositions rather than towards danger, but those were the breaks when you were one of the so-called babes of Baywatch.

Typically, Kagami approached (or didn’t) his admirers with a studious air of professionalism and avoidance, only veering into red-faced rage when they decided to let their interests veer from look into _touch_. It was just better to not get involved, to focus on the work, even if he sometimes felt like no one noticed that he was actually good for more than standing around looking buff and attractively menacing. It just wasn’t worth the time, the energy, or the mortification to engage with every looky-loo who wanted a piece of the Tiger.

But then, one day, out of the blue (dear god, the _blue_ ) Taiga Kagami experienced a sudden change of heart when it came to people who stared just a little too much.

It was a day not too different from any other. Late summer sun making everyone drowsy and happy in the middle of a September afternoon, a light breeze making for a decent surf, a beach of bikinis and boardshorts and good time California vibes chilling out beneath Kagami’s watchful gaze. His shift was almost over, the clocking ticking down to 4:00pm and the moment he could ditch his life-saving floatation device and splash free and clear into the sweet, sweet depths of the Pacific. Children were shrieking with laughter on the edge of the shore, throwing wet sand at one another just like he and Tatsuya had done when they were crazy little brats making Alex’s life difficult. A sunburned man asked him for directions to the nearest public restroom, his gaze skipping from Kagami’s face towards somewhere south of his navel and Kagami was just about to clear his throat and tell the dude that _his eyes were up here, thanks much_ when--

“Dude! Someone’s face down out there!”

Kagami looked away from Mr. Sunburn Sneak-a-Peek to catch the anxious, wide-open stare of one of the local surfers. The guy was pointing wildly at a spot about 30 feet into the ocean, just beyond the point where the waves started to break.

“What happened?” Kagami sprung into action, leaping off the guard stand. His feet hit the sand, solid and sure, grounding him for the second he took to breathe and assess the danger before taking off at a run.

“Dunno, man!” The surfer jogged alongside him. “We paddled out to try to catch a break--and just we were cresting, I saw him out there and it was too late to try and swim back out cuz we were already--”

“Stay here,” Kagami flung out an arm to stop the surfer in his tracks. He didn’t need two potential rescues on his hand, no matter how good this guy thought he was in the ocean. “I’ve got this.”

The current was strong, but Kagami was stronger, the waves and the undertow giving way beneath the quick pull of his arms and the kick of his legs as his dove towards the bobbing figure on the horizon. He kept his eye on the victim, keeping his head above water as he swam as fast as he could, one-two-three strokes to get him closer and closer until he could see shockingly blue hair splayed out almost innocently on the water.

“Sir!” Kagami barked as he got within shouting distance, readying himself for the effort of pulling an unconscious body back to shore. “I’m a lifeguard and I’m here to assist you.”

“Oh.” The hair turned over. “That’s very kind of you.”

Kagami flailed, which was totally uncool for a guard of his experience. He shook his head to make sure his ears hadn’t filled with water and caused him to hallucinate the perfectly awake, perfectly composed (perfectly _cute_ ) face staring back at him--big, bright blue eyes wide with an inexplicable mixture of curiosity and concern.

“Uh, are you OK?” Kagami passed over his rescue can because that’s just what you were supposed to do when you encountered bodies floating aimlessly in the middle of the Pacific, even if said bodies were apparently alive and well.

“Yes?” Blue eyes blinked innocently at him. The guy took hold of Kagami's bright red buoy, stroking it as if it were a dog, and not a life-saving device. “I’m fine, thank you for asking.”

The guy's total lack of concern snapped Kagami back to some semblance of reality. “What the hell are you doing out here face down in the damned ocean?”

The guy smiled at him, just a little, and it was kind of attractive, which almost distracted Kagami from the fact that the dude answered:

“Building up my stamina.”

Kagami stopped treading water. “What the hell?”

“I’m in training,” the guy said, as if that explained anything at all. “And my trainer told me swimming would be good for increasing my endurance. She told me to swim as far as I could and then when I got tired, to practice holding my breath in order to expand my lung capacity.” Kagami floundered. His not-a-rescue victim pushed the floatie in his direction. “Are you OK?”

Kagami rolled his eyes and grabbed the rope tied to the rescue can. “No, I’m not OK. I’m out here risking my life for an apparent nutcase who wants to be able to take deeper breaths by pretending to drown.”

A hand curled around his bicep, small but deceptively strong. “I’m sorry if I alarmed you. I thought that no one would mind this far out from the shore.”

Kagami caught the contrition in the guy’s face, saw the way his lips softened around his _I’m sorry._ He flushed, despite the ever-present chill of the Pacific Ocean.

“Yeah, well,” Kagami hedged, kicking his legs and slowly swimming them back towards dry land. “I can’t let you do your weird ass training regime out here. It’s freaking people out.”

“I’m sorry,” Blue Eyes said again. “Most of the time, no one even notices me.”

Kagami snorted. “Yeah right, I don’t buy that shit for a second. Hair and eyes like yours, looking the way you do...there’s no way people don’t notice you.”

“Maybe it’s just you,” the guy breathed out, his gaze bright and sharp under the afternoon sun.

“It’s my job to notice, idiot.” Kagami resisted the urge to dunk his head under the water and turned his face towards the beach, swimming with all of his might. He didn’t want to be out here with this guy who looked like some mythical sea nymph and acted like one, too. He wanted to get back to sand, back to solid footing. “And it’s also my job to haul your ass to shore in one piece.”

“You have an interesting job, it would seem,” the guy said, gamely trying to keep pace, “Noticing my face and hauling my ass.”

Kagami burned. “Shut. Up.”

To Kagami’s relief, his not-a-victim went so quiet and so still in the water for the rest of their journey through the ocean that Kagami almost forgot he was pulling a blue-eyed, apparent sass-monster back to dry land. He was so focused on not thinking about faces and asses that it wasn’t until the crowd started clapping that he remembered that this was supposed to be a rescue, not an awkward encounter at twenty feet deep.

“Uh, nothing to see here, folks,” Kagami said, grabbing the guy by the hand and dragging him as fast as he could towards the sanctity of his lifeguard stand.

A murmur came from behind him. “I don’t know about that….”

Kagami ignored him in favor of dumping the guy in the sand and taking a second to wipe the water from his eyes and push his hair back from his forehead. He snuck a peek through his fingers, taking in the guy’s short, compact body and the way his trunks clung to the barely-there swell of his thigh muscles. Kagami pegged him for a casual athlete, maybe, someone who went to the gym a few times a week, worked out just enough to merit the beginning of abs and the appeal of a body that rode the edge of toned and soft.

Despite being totally weird, Kagami decided, the guy was kind of….cute.

“Thirsty,” the guy said, breaking Kagami’s totally inappropriate musings about abdomens and workout routines.

“What?” Kagami barked, thrown into a spiral of despair that maybe this time  _he_ was the one caught creepin’ on an innocent beach goer.

“I’m….thirsty,” he repeated, looking on placidly, as if blissfully ignorant of Kagami’s internal struggles.

Kagami noticed that the dude’s cheeks were a little flushed, which somehow added to his ethereal _I might secretly be a mermaid_ vibe. Or, he could have just been hot. Like temperature hot, because it was summer and the beach was kind of sunny and--

Kagami shook his head to snap himself out of it. He was a professional, for God’s sake.

“Oh, uh, if you come with me to the main guard stand, I can get you some water.”

“I would appreciate that, Mr.--”

“Mr. no one. I’m 25, not 45.” Kagami slid his palm into an outstretched hand. The skin against his was soft, still water-wrinkled. ”I’m Kagami. Senior lifeguard for Venice Beach.”

“I’m Kuroko.” The guy’s smile was even gentler than his handshake. “Thank you for trying to save my life.”

"Whatever." Kagami felt the blush crawling across his face. “Don’t mention it.”

“No, really. Kagami is my hero.”  

“Shut it.” Kagami snorted and jerked his head in the direction of HQ. He still needed to get this thirsty guy his water. He also needed to maybe stop holding the guy’s hand. “So what’s the deal with your weird ass training routine?”

“I’m preparing for a marathon,” Kuroko said, his arm brushing against Kagami’s as they made their way up the beach.

That explained the thigh muscles.

“You ever done one before?”

“No,” Kuroko answered, peering up at Kagami. Against the sunlight his eyes seemed almost impossibly blue. “I don’t really care for running. My stamina has never been particularly good.”

“You don’t like running but you’re gonna run a marathon?” Kagami frowned. Kuroko nodded. This guy just got more confusing by the second. “Why the hell would do you that?”

“My friends said that I couldn’t,” Kuroko said. “And I don’t like to be told what is and isn’t possible.”

Kagami chanced a glimpse at Kuroko, almost stopped in his tracks by the fierceness that disrupted the schooled calmness of Kuroko’s expression. He didn’t know anything about this guy, didn’t know who he was or where he was from. All he knew was this one tiny thing that made him tick. All he knew was this look of resolve, quiet and proud and certain. It made his skin itch in all the right ways.

“I hear that. Only you know your limits.”

Kuroko’s shoulder bumped his arm again. “I see that Kagami understands.”

“Yeah,” Kagami murmured, looking down at the still damp crown of Kuroko’s hair and thinking back on all the people who’d told him he’d never amount to much off the basketball court. “I feel you, Kuroko.”

All Kuroko said was, “I’m glad,” before falling silent, trailing quietly next to Kagami as they walked along the beach.  Kagami stopped in front of the stairs leading up to Venice Beach HQ.

“Gimme a second and I’ll get you that water, if you’re still thirsty.”

“Very.” Kuroko smiled at him. “Thank you.”

Kagami beat back his blush and beat a retreat into the guard stand, falling against the door as soon as he knew he was safely out of Kuroko’s sight.

“Shit.” 

Tatsuya was there. Exactly where he didn't need to be when Kagami was having a personal crisis.  

“Exciting shift?” Tatsuya asked, leaning back in his chair to smirk at Kagami.

Kagami scowled and turned away quickly, uninterested in letting his pseudo older-brother further examine the state of his cheeks. He bent down to grab a water from the cooler, attempting to remain as nonchalant as possible.

“Nah. Just some guy causing a minor freak out by doing his best dead-man’s float out on the breakers.”

“Is he hot?” Tatsuya crouched down beside him, poking an intrusive finger into the squishiest, warmest part of Kagami’s face. “Because, you know, you’re blushing.”

“Jesus, be quiet!” Kagami shoved him off.

“Oh? Is he right outside?.” Tatsuya was already halfway to the door before Kagami could think to act. "I should go make sure he's OK, of course, as part of my duties as head guard on shift."

Kagami watched in horror as Tatsuya poked his head outside and half-listened, half-cringed as he listened to his sort-of boss ask Kuroko if Kagami had provided him with good service today.

“I hate you, you know,” Kagami hissed under his breath when Tatsuya came back inside, clearly biting his lip to keep from laughing. “We aren’t brothers any more.”

“Harsh,” Tatsuya said, now openly laughing at him. “But you’ll be glad to know that your new friend gave you high marks, said you serviced him very well, even if you did call him an idiot.”

Kagami glared and threw a piece of ice from the cooler at Tatsuya’s stupid smiling face. “He is an idiot! Holding his breath out in the middle of the ocean to try and win a marathon!”

“That makes no sense, Taiga.”

“Tell me about it,” Kagami grumbled. Tatsuya offered him a hand-up as Kagami took a deep breath and readied himself to face the world again.

Tatsuya tugged on his lifeguard’s whistle and grinned. “He’s a little short for my taste, but go get ‘em, Taiga!”

“God, shut-up!” Kagami shouted as he more or less threw himself out of the lifeguard stand and right back into Kuroko.

Kuroko splayed a hand on Kagami chest to steady him. His fingers were warm and soft.  “Should you be speaking to your boss like that?”

“Uh, he’s more like a brother than a boss,” Kagami said, still staring at the spread of Kuroko’s hand over his heart. “And he’s an ass.”

“Mmm,” Kuroko said, and somehow, it sounded like he was laughing at Kagami without making any real noise at all.

“Here.” Kagami shoved the water at him. “Since you’re so damned thirsty.”

“Oh, I am,” Kuroko said, that damned not-laughter still skating beneath his words, his eyelashes almost fluttering. “My hero.”

Kagami rolled his eyes and jerked his head in the direction of a quiet patch of sand far enough away from the lifeguard stand’s prying eyes and ears. “Just sit down and drink your water.”

A few minutes and half an Evian later, Kagami was watching Kuroko curl his toes into the sand, counting the blisters that littered the edges of his feet.

“So,” Kagami said, pointing at the big one on the back of Kuroko’s heel. “These friends of yours must have really pissed you off to make that worth it...to make half-drowning worth it.”

“I wasn’t drowning at all, Kagami,” Kuroko said, tilting his face towards the sun. “But, yes, I was rather frustrated. They think because I no longer play the way I used to that I’m no longer capable of anything great at all.”

“Play?”

“Basketball,” Kuroko murmured, fingers drawing idle shapes in the sand. “I played with these friends for many years. High school, even in college with one of them. But then the game got better than I could ever play, at least competitively, so I stopped competing before it stopped being any fun at all.”

“I love basketball,” Kagami said, his heart in his throat, thinking about the thousands of hours he’d spent on a court, sweating pouring down his face and his legs aching with the joy of a game hard fought.

“Me too,” Kuroko said, voice soft and sweet as the sunlight slid off his upturned face. “Even if I’m not playing for some grand purpose, even if it's just a pick-up game with friends, it will always be my first love.”

For a wild, crazy moment, Kagami wanted to ask if he could be Kuroko’s second. He shook his head and cleared his throat, swallowing down the kind of nutso thoughts only a stalker would have.

“So, what, you don’t play competitively anymore and these jackholes think they can tell you that you suck at life or something?”

“They don’t think I suck,” Kuroko said, flicking sand between his fingertips. “Just that I’ve gone soft.”

Kagami looked at Kuroko, sitting serenely in the afternoon sun and didn’t think there was anything that was the wrong kind of soft about him (other than his touch).

“And so you want to run this marathon to prove them wrong?”

“Yes.” Kuroko shrugged. “I’m stubborn like that.”

Kagami considered him long and hard, wondered how someone he’d just met could make his pulse race like it was the last ten seconds of the fourth quarter.

“Well, if you promise not to fake-drown to get better at breathing, I’ll help you train,” Kagami said, reaching across the inches that divided them to squeeze Kuroko’s narrow shoulder. “I go running every morning out here before work. You can come with me and I’ll whip your ass into shape.”

Kuroko’s eyes widen, his mouth falling open on something that sounded kind of like, “ _Hot_.”

“Yeah, that’s the whole point of getting out here early, to do it before it gets too hot,” Kagami explained.

Kuroko blinked, once, twice before pushing up on his knees to face Kagami head-on. “Why would you do that? Help me?”

 _Because I like the way you look when you want to tell people to go to Hell with their shitty, defeatist crap_ , Kagami didn’t say.

“Because I think your friends are assholes for doubting you,” Kagami said, staring straight into Kuroko’s big, bluer than blue eyes. “Because I know what it’s like to want to prove someone wrong about who you are.”

“Then I accept.” Kuroko’s hand floated up between them, coming to rest on Kagami’s arm, fingers curling around his bicep. Kagami fell into the sweetness of his smile as Kuroko said, “Thank you, Kagami. I’m glad you rescued me today.”

Kagami licked his lips and fought against the pounding of his heart. “Don’t say thanks for that, idiot. Just say, _I’ll see you tomorrow_.”

Kuroko laughed, ever so softly, and turned his gaze towards the horizon.   

 

 

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



	2. Chapter 2

Kagami’s mouth stretched wide around his sixth yawn in the past forty-five minutes as he leaned back on the smooth wood of his favorite guard stand and wondered if it was dangerous to drink two Redbulls in the same hour. The beach was packed with the kind of crowds that knew summer in September wasn’t going to last forever, everyone taking advantage of a sunny Saturday afternoon at the shore. Kagami needed his wits about him, needed not to feel another yawn cresting from his throat to his--- 

“You’re going to catch flies in there if you keep opening your mouth like that.” 

Kagami snapped bolt upright and glared down at his supervisor. “Gimme a break, Tatsuya. I’m tired as balls.” 

“As balls, huh? Charming.” Tatsuya made a big show of checking his watch and frowning. “It’s not even noon. You’ve only been on shift for like an hour.”

Kagami scratched his nose and kept his gaze firmly planted on the kids splashing around at the edge of the water. “Yeah, well, I’ve been up at 5:30am almost every day this week, so cut me a little slack.” 

“Since 5:30am? And why is that exactly, when you don't normally start your shifts until 10am?” 

Even if he refused to look Tatsuya in his dumb, nosey face, Kagami swore he could hear the incredulous arch of Tatsuya’s eyebrows. 

“...because Kuroko has to be at school by 7:00am,” Kagami explained, keeping his voice as even as possible, because this definitely wasn’t any big deal. “And I promised to train with him for at least an hour every day before work.”

He hadn't realized at the time he made his offer that it would mean getting out of bed hours earlier than necessary, but Kagami figured it was fine, the marathon was only three weeks away and Kuroko always seemed ten times more wrecked than Kagami did at the ass-crack of dawn, so it wasn't really a big deal that he had three hours to kill between Kuroko's exhausted goodbye at 6:30am and work's hello at 10am. Not a big deal at all. 

“Kuroko?” Tatsuya asked, making himself very much not welcome by climbing up the guard stand to bother Kagami up close and personal. “Oh, you mean the cute guy with the blue hair that you pulled out of the ocean last week? The one that made you all hot and bothered?” 

Kagami refused to comment on the merits of Kuroko’s cuteness or his own botheredness. Neither observation was any of Tatsuya’s damned business.

“Kuroko, the guy who I pulled out of the ocean who is also trying to train for the marathon happening next month, who I only decided to help because he’s a fellow athlete who’s been through some shit.” 

“Riiiiight.” Tatsuya settled down next to him, twirling his whistle between his fingers. “So, he’s still in school? Isn’t that a little young for you? I didn’t think you were the jailbait type.”

“Don’t be gross,” Kagami said, kicking Tatsuya’s ankle. “Kuroko’s a kindergarten teacher at the elementary school over on 16th.”

“Cool, so he’s of legal and appropriate age, and possessed of a really adorable profession to boot.” Tatsuya said, knocking his knee into Kagami’s. “Which means you could just ask him out on a date like a normal person.” 

Kagami flushed and prayed for a minor emergency that would relieve him of this conversation. “What makes you think I want to do that?” 

“5:30am isn’t exactly platonic o’clock.” Tatsuya smiled at him, obviously amused at Kagami’s expense.  

“I barely know the guy,” Kagami protested, which was mostly true, since it wasn’t like it was easy to talk while running. Each morning he’d only managed to squeeze a precious few details out of a sleepy-eyed Kuroko before they were off to the races.

“I realize you haven’t been on that many,” Tatsuya said, “but that’s generally what dates are good for---getting to know someone.” 

“I hate you,” Kagami said, contemplating the potential downsides to shoving Tatsuya off his guard stand. 

“So you keep saying,” Tatsuya laughed, before suddenly sitting up straight and staring intently down the horizon. 

“Everything OK?” Kagami asked, already reaching for his board and strap. 

“Yeah, yeah, sorry,” Tatsuya said, settling back into place. “I was just thinking that maybe your crush decided to sleep in late today.” 

“What the hell? Why would you think--”

Amusement once more took up residence in the corners of Tatsuya’s lips. “This is just a wild guess, but does he happen to have really intense bed-head first thing in the morning?”

A strange mix of foreboding and anticipation crept up Kagami’s spine. “...how did you…”

Tatsuya pinched Kagami’s chin between his fingers, turning his face towards the shore. “Because he’s headed this way.” 

And lo, much to Kagami’s surprise (and maybe a touch of delight), Tatsuya wasn’t full of shit. Kuroko, in all of his horrendous bed-headed glory, was indeed meandering his way up the beach. 

“Oh.” Kagami managed. 

Tatsuya shook his head at Kagami's many failings and then started waving, needlessly alerting Kuroko to Kagami’s state of shock. 

“Stop that, he’ll see you--”

“That’s the point,” Tatsuya said, slapping Kagami’s hand away. “Besides, I’m pretty sure this was his final destination anyway, so he was going to see me no matter what.” 

“You don’t know that--”

“Kuroko, right?” Tatsuya said, mocking expression instantly smoothing into a warm, welcoming smile. “It’s nice to see you again, isn’t it, Kagami?” 

After he finished wishing for Tatsuya’s death, Kagami risked looking down the steps of the guard stand. Kuroko was there, staring up at him with his big blue eyes. 

“Yeah,” Kagami grunted, throat rendered dry by a sudden thirst. “Hey.” 

Kuroko smiled. “Hello.” 

Kagami wanted to reach down and fix his awful hair, but that would have been super weird and not a little intrusive and Tatsuya was right there next to him and he wasn’t really sure what to say--

“Well…..” Tatsuya said, after the silence had gone on long enough to give birth to awkward children, “Kagami was just about to be off for the--”

“But I just got on--”

Tatsuya pinched his side. “Kagami was just about to go off shift, so give us a few minutes and the big guy will be right with you. Sound good?”

Kuroko looked like he thought this whole scene playing out before him sounded absolutely hilarious. “Sounds good, I’ll just wait over there.” He threw a wave over his shoulder. “It was nice to see you, Tatsuya.” 

Kagami waited until Kuroko had moved a safe distance away before turning to confront Tatsuya’s smirking face. 

“What the hell?”

“You’ve been working all week,” Tatsuya said, “I’ll take the rest of your shift, if you promise to go have a little bit of fun,” he jerked his thumb at Kuroko, “with him.”

Kagami considered his options. He wasn’t entirely sure he wanted to play along with Tatsuya’s little game, but he also did want to know why Kuroko had shown up on their scheduled rest day and, yeah, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to have a sunny Saturday off. 

“Fine,” Kagami said, packing up his stuff. “But you call me if you need me. I don’t like to feel like I’m abandoning my post.” 

Tatsuya rolled his eyes. “You’re abandoning it with the head lifeguard, under his orders. Now off with you.” He shooed Kagami away. 

“Later,” Kagami muttered, making his way to the sand in one giant leap. 

“Are you frightened of stairs?” Kuroko asked, when Kagami caught up to him. 

“Very funny.” Kagami tugged on the ends of Kuroko’s hair. “Are you afraid of a brush?” 

Kuroko had the gall to look affronted, running his hands through the tangled mess and somehow managing to make it worse. 

“There’s no hope for that,” Kagami laughed. “Except maybe a quick dip in the ocean.” 

“Alright, let’s go,” Kuroko shrugged, dropping his bag and reaching for the hem of his shirt. 

“Uh,” Kagami said, trying to resist the urge to crane his neck and get a better view of the free and unexpected morning show. “I’m game if you are,  but is that really what you came here for? You’re supposed to be resting your muscles today, remember?” 

“I remember,” Kuroko said, voice muffled beneath his shirt. His head finally popped free, leaving him naked from the waist up. Which was entirely normal, Kagami reminded himself, because this was a beach and Kuroko had every reason to take off his clothes. Kuroko toed off his flip-flops and smiled. “But we can always just float. I’m good at that, you know.” 

“Yeah, I know.” Kagami rolled his eyes and clapped Kuroko on the shoulder, feeling the warmth of his skin beneath his palm. “Weirdo.” 

Five minutes later, the work week seemed like a distant dream, the gentle waves working magic on Kagami’s tired body. Kuroko seemed to be of the same mind, bobbing up and down quietly beside him with his face turned towards the sun. 

“How are you feeling?” Kagami asked. “I hope I haven’t been working you too hard.” 

Kuroko opened one eye. “No, Kagami is very kind compared to my other trainer.” 

“Is this the one that had you doing breathing exercises out here?” 

Kuroko nodded before dipping below the surface of the water and staying down for 5, 10, 15 seconds before coming back up for air. 

“Riko has many interesting techniques,” Kuroko said, wiping salt-water from his eyes. Kagami watched the rivulets pour down his cheeks. “But she’s always been the one who helped me get better at basketball, so I tend to follow her advice.” 

“Yeah, I know how that is,” Kagami murmured, thinking about all the hours Alex had spent running him through drills, loving him as hard as she worked him. “Good coaches are hard to find.” 

“Kagami understand so much.” Kuroko offered up a small, secret smile. 

Kagami hid his blush with a well-time dunk into the ocean, shaking his head to clear his thoughts. 

“So, what are you really doing out here?” Kagami asked when he felt it safe to resurface. 

“Most people do come to the beach to go swimming in the ocean,” Kuroko said, once again floating on his back. Kagami flicked water at his smug little face. Kuroko just closed his eyes. “But I also brought you lunch.” 

Kagami’s heart tripped like a wave on rocks. “You did?” 

“As a thank you for all that you’ve done for me,” Kuroko said, floating peacefully along, blissfully unaware of what he was doing to Kagami’s blood pressure. 

“You didn’t have to,” Kagami managed. “I don’t mind helping. It’s not like I wouldn’t be going for those runs--

“You shouldn’t sell your kindness short.” Kuroko’s eyes were very blue, his jaw set in that same determined clench that first made Kagami want to know more. 

Disarmed, adrift, Kagami didn’t know what to say  _ that _ , so he settled for a mumbled, “So, what’s for lunch?” 

Kuroko softened. Kagami stayed very, very still, not wanting to break the spell. 

Kuroko bit his lip and took a breath. “I brought us sandwiches, drinks….and a basketball.” 


	3. Chapter 3

It felt good to have a basketball in his hands. Really good, like hugging an old friend he hadn’t seen for months. The ball was well-used, so worn down that Kagami could barely make out _Spalding_ running along the seams. There was something almost intimate about it, holding something Kuroko obviously loved in the palm of his hand as he pushed into the too-small span Kuroko’s defensive crouch and then let it fly, the ball arcing away from the tips of his fingers to fall through the bottom of the with a satisfying _swoosh_.

The ball bounced on the court, rolling towards Kuroko’s toes as Kagami pumped his fist in the air and shouted, “God, it’s been way too damned long.”

“You’re very good,” Kuroko said. His face was flush, sweat beading down his cheeks. Kagami could smell the ocean on his skin, could feel how warm he was when they were this close, jockeying for position as Kuroko dribbled and tried to make his way around the wide curve of Kagami’s arms. Kuroko shifted back and forth, smiling despite his struggles. “At least at this.”

Kagami stole the ball and shifted into a quick jump shot, smirking as it went through nothing but net. “That makes it 12-3. Maybe I’m just _good_.”

“At one-on-one,” Kuroko observed, jogging stiffly down the court to retrieve the ball. He fired off a pass that landed squarely on Kagami’s chest. “You clearly hold the advantage, given your height and your skill at making shots.”

“Yeah, well,” Kagami winced at the unexpected force of Kuroko’s impressively precise pass. “My coach always said I was made to be an all-rounder. What about you?”

“I’m the classic 6th man. Good at passing, decent at scoring, and great at making everyone else on the court seem just a little bit better.” Kuroko said, crowding into Kagami’s space and blocking his path to the basket. He was close, so close, but his voice sounded wistful and distant, as if he was far away from the cracked pavement of this ocean-side court, lost in another time and place.  “I was made to be on a team. Alone, my skills are only slightly better than average at best.”

In the instant Kagami thought about reaching for him, to offer reassurance or comfort or something (anything to make Kuroko look less defeated), the ball slipped away from his control, poked loose by Kuroko’s lightening quick touch. Too slow, too out of practice to catch-up, Kagami watched as Kuroko spun away and pushed up on his toes, firing-off a perfectly serviceable shot that bounced off the backboard and into the hoop. 

“Rude,” Kagami grunted, still stunned that by the speed with which Kuroko had stolen the ball.

“Sorry.” Kuroko’s smile brightened, but Kagami could tell there was still something off, that even though they were inches from touching, Kuroko was a thousand miles gone.

“That’s the game,” Kagami said, at a loss for what to do when Kuroko seemed so unreachable.

“It doesn’t have to be,” Kuroko murmured and Kagami thought that maybe those words weren’t meant for him at all.

Kagami wanted to touch him. He wished that they were closer, that he knew this strange guy with the pretty eyes and the half-decent jump-shot well enough to pull him into a hug or maybe even into a--

“We should eat,” Kuroko said, breaking into Kagami’s reverie before it could get any more dangerous. He looked up at Kagami, his earlier sorrow slipping away into that familiar careful expression.

Kagami wanted to see Kuroko smile again--- a real smile, the kind that a game of good basketball deserved. But he didn’t know what to say or what to do to earn back Kuroko's smile other than to go with the flow and follow wherever it was Kuroko was trying to lead.

“Sure. I can always eat.”

Kuroko looked him up and down. “I can tell.”

Kagami rolled his eyes and shoved Kuroko in the direction of a couple of benches. “Has anyone ever told you that you’re a real funny guy?”

“Never.”

“You’re also a dirty liar,” Kagami informed him, holding out his hand to accept the sandwich Kuroko pulled out of his backpack. Dirty liar or no, Kagami was definitely not turning down free food.  

Kuroko damned near fluttered his eyelashes.  A silent, teasing, “ _Who? Adorable little me?”_

Kagami scowled and felt the back of his neck prickle, a hot shock of _something_ threatening to crawl onto his face. He unwrapped his sub with a vengeance, muttering under his breath:

“Thinks he can get away with it, just because he looks like that.”

Kuroko fumbled his soda, dropping the can from his clumsy-ass fingers right into the sudden (and extremely clutch) outstretch of Kagami’s palm.

“Sorry,” Kuroko said, cheeks flushed a pretty shade of pink.

“Don’t worry about it.” Kagami handed over the wayward soda and wondered why Kuroko seemed so flustered over something as lame as being a klutz.

“You have very good reflexes.”

“Guess so,” Kagami said around a mouthful of delicious, delicious sandwich. “Always came in handy for playing sports, but for whatever reason I was never that great at video--.”

“You have something, here--” Kuroko interrupted and then his hand was reaching towards Kagami’s face, fingertips brushing just below his bottom lip. Kagami went almost cross-eyed trying to follow the touch. Kuroko smiled at him, just a little. “This is why Kagami shouldn’t talk with his mouth full.”

Kagami blushed and slammed his mouth shut, chewing hard and fast and furious to keep from dying of low-level embarrassment.

Kuroko dropped his hand back to his lap and started picking at the edge of his sandwich. “You’re good, you know, at basketball.”

Kagami shrugged and kept right on chewing. He knew he was decent on the court. Maybe a little bit better than decent--

“Really, very good.” Kuroko was balling up a little piece of bread between his fingers and then pressing it flat again. “Maybe even great.”

Kagami wondered if maybe Kuroko wasn’t hungry, if maybe he’d just pretended to be hungry to avoid having an awkward conversation about why basketball seemed to make him so wistful and maybe kind of sad---

“So, why did you stop playing basketball?”

Blue eyes pinned him place. Kagami’s pulse tripped,caught somewhere between his heart and throat.  He chewed as slowly as possibly now, wanting to drag out the seconds before he swallowed and he needed to answer his least favorite question. The bread felt dry and heavy and horrible in his mouth, making him choke as he swallowed.

Silently, Kuroko handed him his soda. Kagami put his lips where Kuroko’s had gone before and regretted that he was too thrown for a loop to take any pleasure in the sweet ridiculousness of an indirect kiss. He handed back the can and wiped his lips against the back of his palm before throwing his head back and turning his face towards the sky, hoping the sun would burn away any tears that might dare to show up.

“Senior year in high school, I blew out my ACL.” Kagami closed his eyes. “I had a scholarship to UCLA and everyone tried their damnedest to get my leg back to where it needed to be, but I wanted to be starting on that team my freshman year so I pushed too hard, too soon and just made everything worse. I didn’t listen and I ended up with micro-tearing.” His hand crept towards the almost invisible scars from the two surgeries he’d suffered through in the pursuit of his dream. He pressed his thumb into the divot of  wrinkled tissue to keep from crying. “In the two years it took to recover enough, I’d lost my place on the team and at the school and it was too late to try to get back what had passed me by.”

In the silence that followed, he felt Kuroko’s hand covering his own, fingers sliding between his knuckles and squeezing just hard enough to let Kagami know that he was there, holding steady.

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be.” Kagami choked back a watery laugh and curled his fingers down, abandoning old scars for the warmth of Kuroko’s touch. “Who knows how it would have all turned out? Maybe I would have peaked in college or failed out of school or--

“You don’t have to act like it wasn’t a big deal,” Kuroko murmured, thumb stroking along the side of his palm. “I understand.”

Kagami turned his gaze to Kuroko, trusting him with the wetness that always showed up when he told his sad-ass tale of woe. He barely knew this guy but he _knew_ that Kuroko knew what it was to lose a piece of something that made you who you were.

“I know,” Kagami said, smiling somehow. “But it turned out OK, right? I like my life. I like living here and being a lifeguard. And maybe I'm not some NBA star, but some people think lifeguards are pretty damned cool, too.”

“You are very good at rescuing people who don't need saving.” Kuroko smiled back at him, real and true and sweet. “But, despite that, Kagami, I do think you are pretty cool.”

“So glad you approve.” Kagami rolled his eyes to disguise the fact that he was, in fact, glad.

Somehow, this time, telling the story had stung a little less.  He took Kuroko’s hand from his knee, held it between his own, and lifted it up to take a closer look at the tell-tale calluses running along the top of his palm. The kind of thing you only got from the constant scrape of a ball against your skin. The feel of it made him want to know Kuroko’s answer to _why_ _don’t you play basketball anymore?_ He wanted to know how something so hard earned could make someone look so damned sad.

“You’re pretty good, too,” Kagami said, pressing his thumbnail into the hardened skin beneath Kuroko’s index finger. “For the so-called 6th man.”

Kuroko gently slipped his hand away. “I’m so glad you approve.”

“Funny guy strikes again,” Kagami grunted, distracting himself from the sudden lack of hand-holding with a big bite of roast-beef on whole wheat.  

Kuroko sighed, almost dramatically, which was saying a lot for someone like Kuroko. Kagami sat up straight, suddenly on high alert.

“But I suppose you don’t play with Aomine for years and learn nothing at all.”

Kagami’s mouth fell open, a half-eaten piece of sandwich following out and landing on his crotch.

“Aomine as in Aomine Daiki?”

“Yes, that Aomine,” Kuroko said, as if that little bit of information was no big deal. “Kagami, do you know how to eat food? I think your manners may be worse than those of my students.”

“Well, excuuuuse me!” Kagami flicked the offending piece of his lunch into the court. “It’s not every day the dude I fished out of the ocean tells me he used to play ball with the #2 player on the Cavaliers! Jesus!”

“Aomine would argue that he’s number 1--”

“Then Aomine’s a fucking idiot because Lebron is obviously the best player in the league, let alone on the Cavs and anyone who knows anything about basketball knows that...and why the hell am I talking about Lebron James when I should be asking YOU how the hell you know Aomine!”

Kuroko waited for him to catch his breath, gamely pounding Kagami on the back until he returned to some sort of normal.

“Aomine _is_ an idiot,” Kuroko said, when Kagami finally stopped spazzing out. “But we played on the same team in high school. We won a few state championships and when he was recruited to play for Duke, he asked them to take me as well.”

“You, uh, must have been close, for him to do that.” Kagami ventured, unwelcome envy curdling in his stomach.

“In a manner of speaking,” Kuroko said, looking away. “In high school, we were a duo on the court, his skills and my support striking a balance few could touch.”

Kagami took a moment to process this, trying and failing to imagine what it must have been like to be sixteen year-old Kuroko, not very tall, not very big, trying to handle Aomine Daiki’s raw talent. What it must have been like to follow the guy to a D-1 school with a powerhouse basketball program and watch the guy’s raw talent get refined into something undeniably great, something few people could touch.

“But in college, he changed,” Kuroko sighed, cupping his chin between his hands as if the memory was too heavy to carry. “Or maybe it was that I did not change enough. Aomine grew so talented, so confident, that he didn’t need me any longer. In fact, he came to believe he didn’t need any of his teammates to win, that none of us had anything to offer him, so after two years, he gave up his remaining years of eligibility and made the jump to the NBA.”

Kagami remembered reading about the phenom from the Duke Blue Devils who went first in the draft that year. Kagami wondered what if maybe they would have met, he and Kuroko and Aomine, if he hadn’t torn his ACL, if maybe in another reality they could have been great rivals. Kagami would have been totally down with the opportunity to wipe the guy of the court for making Kuroko look like he wanted to cry.

“He sounds like a dick.”

Kuroko looked surprised and then started laughing. “Only sometimes. Now that he’s been defeated so handily so many times in the NBA, Aomine’s massive ego has been tempered enough to leave space for others in the room.”

“Well, I guess that’s good,” Kagami said grudgingly, ready to give Aomine freaking Daiki a pass on his dickish behavior right up until he remembered that Kuroko said it was his friends he used to play basketball with that had mocked him for wanting to run a marathon. “Oy, Kuroko! Was this guy the same dickhead that said you were too weak for a marathon?”

“He was one of the dickheads, yes.”

“I’m gonna kick his ass!”

Kuroko sounded deeply amused as put a cautionary hand on Kagami’s knee. “It is very sweet of you to want to defend my honor, but--”

“But nothing,” Kagami complained. “I could totally take him! I work out! I carry heavy ass people out of the water all the time and I’m pretty buff--

“I know, believe me I know.” Kuroko said. He patted Kagami’s knee soothingly. “But Aomine lives in Cleveland right now, so it would be very difficult to kick his ass from Los Angeles.”

“Ugh. Fine.”

Kagami reluctantly surrendered the point. Cleveland was kind of far away for an ass kicking. And he’d probably get mobbed by Cavs fans if he did anything to hurt their precious second-best player, even if Aomine did deserve it for doubting Kuroko not once, but twice. If only he could see Kuroko now, getting up at the crack of dawn and running until his muscles ached and his face was red with effort and--

“Wait!” Kagami shot up from the bench, tragically losing the gentle press of Kuroko’s fingertips against his thigh. “I have an idea.”

Kuroko dusted the crumbs from his legs and stood up as well, warily eyeing Kagami as if he was suspicious of Kagami’s great ideas. “Does this one involve more violence or--”

“Unfortunately, no.” Kagami clasped Kuroko’s shoulders and grinned. “Invite him to the marathon.”

“So you can kick his ass?”

“No, idiot, no ass kicking! I give up on the idea of ass kicking, alright?” Kagami shook Kuroko until the vague hint of concern for Aomine’s well-being disappeared from Kuroko’s pretty blue eyes. Kagami burned inside from the thrill of his own genius. This was going to be so, so, so good, if only Kuroko would say yes.

“Kuroko, I’ll do everything in my power to get you across that finish line,” Kagami promised. Kuroko stood stock still, staring at him with a fathomless expression. Kagami took a deep breath and took a leap of faith. “So invite him to the marathon so you can prove to him that no one, not even he, gets to tell you who you are and what you’re worth.”


End file.
